Stage set for counting votes in Andhra Pradesh

The stage is set for counting of votes polled in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh assembly, amid tight security on Friday.

The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements for counting of votes at 168 centres in 79 locations.

Votes polled for 42 Lok Sabha and 294 assembly seats will begin early in the morning. State Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal said the first result is expected at 10 am while the entire process was likely to be completed by 5 pm.

The poll officials have arranged 6,955 counting tables, which will be manned by counting personnel. There will be one observer at each centre to oversee the process.

Representatives from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the manufacturers of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), will be available at all the centres to attend to any technical problem.

In the elections held in two phases, 48.16 million or 74.24 percent of total 64.88 million voters had cast their votes.

The first phase of the elections April 30 covered 119 assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. Under the second phase, polling was held for 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra.

As Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) are set to be formed as separate states on June 2, the elected legislators will be allotted to their respective state assemblies.

For 42 Lok Sabha seats, 598 candidates were in fray while 3,912 tested their fortunes in the assembly elections.

The prominent candidates for Lok Sabha polls include central ministers S. Jaipal Reddy, Kishore Chandra Deo, Pallam Raju, former central minister D. Purandeswari, who contested as BJP candidate and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao.

The contestants for assembly elections include chief minister aspirants in Telangana TRS chief Chandrasekhara Rao and state Congress unit president Ponnala Lakshmaiah. In Seemandhra the candidates include chief minister aspirants YSR Congress party chief Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu.